Posts Tagged ‘Social media’

The amount of information and the speed at which content is currently produced may seem overwhelming. If you have a message, product or service to deliver to the masses you may wish to use social media to connect with customers, friends or potential buyers.

But you first have to be heard.

How among all the social platforms will your voice be heard above the throng of tweets, posts and status updates?

Katherine Pangaro via Compfight

Step 1: Craft a Plan

The first step to standing out from the crowd on social media is to plan. We know of a jewelry company who thought it was a ‘good idea to get on Facebook.’ After opening a Facebook page and uploading a few pictures of jewelry they were disheartened to see very few people connecting with their business. They didn’t have a plan.

We’ll get into a few specifics below, but the old saying “if you fail to plan you plan to fail” certainly rings true.

Step 2: Set Your Goals

While crafting your plan, be specific. Use the acronym S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-based) as a guide. Ensure each of your tasks includes each and every S.M.A.R.T. item.

Step 3: Solicit for Feedback

Once a plan is crafted, consider that draft one. Perhaps you want to connect with customers on a social network like Facebook. Once you’ve crafted a plan using S.M.A.R.T. goals to do that, ask someone (and we’d be happy to help) what they think of your plan. It could be that Facebook may be the wrong platform and Pinterest or Google+ may better serve your demographic. Get a second opinion.

Step 4: Remain Consistent and Flexible

Consisten and flexible may seem dichotomous, but they’re not. A good parent is both consistent as well as flexible. The sam remains true for social media. As social media continues to expand, consistently learning new trends and methods of connection enables us not to get in a rut, rigidly refusing to adjust to changes in technological advances.

Facebook’s new feature, Facebook Graph Search, aims to take social media search on Facebook to a higher, more specific level for users.

What is Facebook Graph Search?

Currently, there are two ways to get information on Facebook: news feed and timeline. Users view news feed to see a broad overview of current activity for all the people and pages they’re following. Visiting a specific user’s timeline allows a user to view all the updates associated with the user, filtering out other user’s updates.

With Graph Search, Facebook introduces a third way to get information.

+Interests/Places: Users wishing to find people at their workplace who have similar likes and interests will find Graph Search a useful feature. Because of this, Facebook Graph Search will be a tool used for collaboration at work and coordinating events in communities.

+Photos: Photo search is included in Graph Search. By typing in any search query, Facebook Graph Search brings up photos pertaining to the search.

Cons of Graph Search

+Privacy: As mentioned, Graph Search is still in beta so privacy issues are yet to be experienced. Want to see who likes or dislikes certain organizations, candidates or celebrities is extrememly easy with Graph Search. Even before this becomes a major feature and is fully integrated into Facebook, users should take note of their likes and interests posted on Facebook and decide if they want those known and searchable.

+Bing: Facebook’s default search provider is currently Bing, and apparently that will not change. When Graph Search is unable to find a search of “favorite live chicken shows in Dallas” in your search, Bing will kick in.

Though Graph Search is still in beta testing, you can find sign up to be one of the first to get your hands on this newest feature by clicking here.